Children of the Sun
by EternalDayDreams
Summary: Darcy Yew always knew she wasn't normal, but she never imagined she wasn't even human. It started with a chocolate chip cookie and a strange boy at the door who's gait wasn't quite right, and ended with Darcy and her older brother, Michael, being trust into a world of Greek Gods and monster fighting. (Lame Summery.) Set before "PJO: The Lightning Thief".
1. Chapter 1: A very, very strange night

**Hello all! This is my newest story, and I'm pretty excited about it!**

** This story is a prequel to my other story "Sunshine", which is a cross-over fanfic with PJO and ROTG. "Children of the Sun" takes place about 5-6 years before "Sunshine" and has no cross-over things going on. **

**Set before The Lightning Thief. **

**Enjoy :)**

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It was early June in a small town in Florida, a picturesque sort of day, with the sun shining and puffy white clouds dotting a baby blue sky as spring began it's slow decent into summer. A younger Darcy paced in the living room of a cute two story beach house. She was ten years old and her sun-bleached-blonde hair was wrestled into a curly ponytail near the top of her head. Her skin was sun-kissed and covered in freckles, lightly dotted from head to toe, and concentrated on the bridge of her nose. Clear blue eyes watched the door impatiently.

Not a moment past 3, a young boy just two years older than Darcy strode through the front door, a dark blue backpack bobbling along behind him. He was roughly 5 feet tall with a mop of white-blonde hair, lightly freckled skin, and the same blue eyes as his sister.

"Michael!" Darcy exclaimed, hugging the older boy tightly around the middle. She grinned up at him, revealing a gap where her top left canine should have been.

"Hey Darce, miss me?" Michael replied, returning her embrace.

Darcy nooded vigorously and led him into the kitchen, where their mother, a short, slim woman with light brown hair that brushed against her shoulders and kind blue eyes, was pulling a tray of chocolate chip cookies out of the oven. Once the tray was safely on the counter, she spun around to face her children.

"Welcome home, sweetie, how was your last day of the sixth grade?"

"It was alright," Michael flicked a few strands of hair out of his eyes "I couldn't wait for it to be over, though."

Mom smiled softly and turned back to the cookies. She began moving them from the tray to the cooling rack. Darcy eyed them hopefully. The smell was intoxicating, and she wanted to get one before they cooled, while the chocolate chips were still melted and gooey and amazing.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Well, several rapid knocks on the door, as though the knocker had just eaten thirty-two pixie sticks and couldn't sit still. Mom walked out to investigate and Darcy slowly walked closer to the cookies. Michael stayed at the table, watching. From her spot against the kitchen counter, Darcy could hear a few frantic words from the stranger at the door.

"Michael... camp... right NOW... danger..."

She paused, what the heckwas going on? She cast a quick look at the cookies above her and snatched one. Having gotten her prize, she hurried back to the living room to see for herself.

Standing at the door was an awkward, scrawney looking kid about Michael's age. He had curly brown hair, olive skin, and dark eyes that were ficking back to look at Michael every few words. He wore a T-shirt, jeans, and a pair of sneakers that didn't seem to fit quite right. Michael seemed to recognize him.

"Carter? What are you doing here?"

The boy, Carter, nervously let out a strange noise that reminded Darcy of the goats at the petting zoo. He locked eyes with Michael, who was now walking foreward at a steady pace, and shifted nervously on his feet.

"Well, uh, you see, the thing is-"

"I've invited Carter to stay the night, " Mom interupted cooly "I'm a friend of his parents and they're going out of town for a little while."

Carter nodded vigorously, confirming her statement. Michael eyed them suspiciously, but accepted the answer none the less. Darcy watched them all curiously, before taking a bite out of the cookie she'd almost forgotten she had.

Shortly after Carter arrived, things calmed back down, though mom looked more skittish than usual. The three children spent a few hours bumming about the livingroom, watching whatever shows were on, before they were called out for dinner.

Mom had pulled out an extra chair for the small wooden table, that was now cramped with four large plates of her signiture breaded parmesian chicken. Well, three plates; the fourth plate was covered in mixed vegetables with a few specs of what looked suspiciously like aluminum. Carter had explained earlier that he was a vegetarian. The siblings climbed into their chairs eagerly, as this was their favorite meal. Carter rushed behind them, his nerves subsided at the thought of food. They ate in silence for a while, but Darcy could feel her mother shifting nervously across the table.

"So, " mom said finally "how do you two feel about going to a summer camp this year?"

Darcy and Michael stopped eating and looked up at her in confusion. She'd never let them go to summer camp before, so why now?

"I thought we weren't _allowed_ to go to summer camp" Michael answered, his eyes locked with his mothers.

"This camp is... special. You'll be safer there."

"You say that like we're in danger right now."

...

...

...

"We AREN'T in danger, right?"

Mom shifted nervously again. She refused to meet his eyes, she chewed her lip and stared at a knot in the wood of the kitchen table. Carter gnawed on his fork nervously.

"Right?" Michael prompted again, his voice raising a little.

"Honey, it's..." she sighed and turned to look at him "it's complicated."

"Complicated how?" he demanded, clenching his fists, his eyes searching for answers.

"There's something I have to tell you, something very important. I've put off telling you two for as long as I could, I've been trying to protect you, I-"

"What haven't you told us" Michael interrupted, sitting up straighter in his seat.

"It's about your father" Mom said quietly, she locked eyes with Michael before they flickered down to Darcy.

They all went silent after that. The topic of their father didn't come up often, and when it did, it never stayed long. Darcy stared at her plate, her small brow furrowed in confusion. What could her mother possibly be hiding from them that was so important? Important enough to put their lives in danger?

Carter got jumpier than he had been all day, his nose started twitching and his eyes got wide. After a minute of wriggling in his seat, he suddenly shot up faster than Darcy thought possible. He looked absolutely terrifed.

"We have to go" He managed to choke out, his eyes darting around as though he expected someone to jump out of the shadows and attack at any second.

Michael and Darcy opened their mouths to protest, but were silenced by the look of terror in their mother's eyes.

"Go, quickly, run upstairs and pack only the essentials. I'll explain on the way." She said with a shaking voice.

The siblings didn't dare argue. Darcy raced up the steps and grabbed her newly emptied school backpack off the floor and began stuffing it with clothes and toiletries. Only the essentials, her mother had said. She glanced over at her bed and grabbed the doll she'd had since she was a baby. She was pretty sure it counted as an essential, she couldn't sleep without it. She ran into Michael as she tumbled down the stairs, he was carrying a small duffle bag, which was probably a lot more practical than the small schoolbag Darcy had taken.

As soon as they reached the ground floor, their mother ushered them quickly out the door and into the dark blue Jeep. Their mother kept wispering words of comfort as she pushed them along. 'It'll all be okay' 'You'll be safe soon' 'everything will be alright' Darcy wasn't sure if she was comforting them or herself.

They raced down the road, going speeds that were almost definetly over the legal limit. Carter sat in the passenger seat, wipping his head back and forth with wide eyes, sniffing like a tracking dog. Darcy sank deeper into her seat, holding her backpack to her chest. It was safe to say she was sufficiently freaked out. She had hardley any idea what was going on, except that they were in extreme danger, they had to go to some camp, and it had to do with her father, who she'd never met before. She glanced over at Michael, he sat uncomfortably in his seat, his gaze flicking between Carter and Mom as though he thought they'd completely lost it.

A few minutes in, while they were speeding down a highway, they felt a large /thump/ as though they'd run over a ridiculously oversized squirrel. Darcy peeked through the window to see what they had hit and her eyes grew wide. She wished they had hit a mutated squirrel.

Chasing after their car was a woman, at least that's what she looked like at first. But from the waist down, where her legs should have been, where two large serpent tails.

_Just what Florida needed_, Darcy thought, _more snake_s.

She was too shocked to scream, she couldn't even bring herself to move. She sat frozen, staring out the window at the snake woman- a dracaenae, her brain told her, but she wasn't sure how she knew that. The car sped up, and Carter started fumbling with a reed pipe Darcy had never noticed he had. Vines and grasses from the forest bordering the highway started growing towards the dracaenae, and eventually wrapped around it until they had formed a dense cacoon around the monster.

"That should hold her off for a little while, but there's no doubt in my mind that she'll be back." Carter looked exhausted as he spoke to Mom.

She nodded curtly and glanced at her children in the mirror.

"We're going to have to drive through the night, so you two should try to get some sleep."

"Not before you tell us what's going on" Michael answered after a moment. Mom sighed and glanced at the two over her shoulder.

"Well, " She watched the road carefully, checking her mirrors for more monsters "I'm taking you two to a camp. A camp where you will be safe. Your father wanted me to take both of you there, when you're old enough, or when it's too dangerous to keep you at home."

Darcy stared at her, trying to soak in the words. Why would her father want her to go to a camp? What could possibly be so special about it?

"It's for kids like you two, kids who aren't exactly... normal. It's in Long Island, New York, just outside of the city." She continued.

"What do you mean we're not normal? Are you calling us_ freaks_?" Michael asked, his voice a mixture between hurt and anger.

"No no! Of course not! You two are just, not the same as your peers. You're..." Mother answered frantically, covering her mistake.

"You're half-bloods" Carter stated bleekly, turning around to face us.

"Half-blood?" Darcy asked "like half-human?!"

Carter nodded.

"If we're half human, " Michael asked "Than what's the other half? Guinea Pig? Wherewolf?"

"no no nothing like that" Carter said dismissively.

"Half god, " Mom said quietly "you two are half-human and half-god."

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**Aaand there we have it! I hope you guys liked it! **


	2. Chapter 2: Escaping the She-Snakes

Darcy and Michael stared at her in shock. This couldn't be happening. There is no possible way this could be happening. But she didn't sound like she was joking. And after the short run-in with a dracaenae, Darcy didn't know what to believe anymore. Before they could speak up, their mother spoke again.

"That's all I can tell you right now, the more you know the easier it is for monsters to find you. You'll find out more at camp. But for now, please, just try and sleep." She was almost begging by now, and Darcy couldn't bear to say no.

She nodded meekly and curled up on the fabric seat, trying to ignore the day's crazy events.

Darcy woke up the next morning to an ache in her neck and unfamiliar surroundings. She was curled up awkwardly in the backseat of the Jeep, clutching her backpack while Michael snored softly next to her. The patches of trees lining the streets looked foreign, the air smelt strange, and the sunshine just didn't seem as bright as it did back home.

The nights events came rushing back to her and she lurched forward, only to be tugged back by the seat-belt locking her firmly against the seat. She hoped it was all a strange, terrible dream, but it didn't look like that was the case. Carter was driving now, and mom was taking a nap against the passenger side window. She was pretty sure Carter didn't have a license, but couldn't bring herself to care.

"Where are we?" Darcy asked quietly.

Carter jumped in his seat and took a tentative glace over his shoulder before facing the road again. Apparently he hadn't expected her to be awake yet.

"We're, uh, we're in New York. Maybe half and hour from camp." Carter replied, keeping his voice low and he drove.

That wasn't possible, Darcy thought. There was absolutely no way they could have driven from Florida to New York in one night. But then again, she thought, there were a lot of things she'd seen and heard in the past 24 hours that shouldn't have been possible. If she could be a half-blood, who's to say they couldn't drive from Florida to New York in one night. There were a few minutes of silence before another question came to Darcy.

"Has the snake-woman, the monster, come back yet?" The words sort of tumbled out of her mouth as soon as she thought it, but there was nothing she could do about it now.

"A few times, " Carter seemed to get more nervous-or was it anxious?- than he already was, Darcy could see him chewing his lip through the mirror "but I've been able to hold her back for now. I was top of my class with reed pipe magic, you know."

"Will she come back again?" Darcy asked, her voice now uncharacteristically small.

"Well, ah, " Carter scratched the back of his neck and looked at her through the mirror "it's possible. But if we're lucky, we might be able to get to camp before she catches up again."

Darcy left it at that. She didn't want to think about the monster any more than she had to, and even though Carter's words weren't very comforting, they were something. They rode in silence for a while longer before Michael and Mom finally stirred. Michael woke up first, after Carter drove over a nice sized pot-hole, and his head bumped against the window. As soon as he opened his mouth, Mom woke up. Michael was never good at being quiet.

"What the heck is going on" Michael exclaimed much louder than he should have. He looked around frantically before the nights event caught up to him, then he thumped back against his seat and sighed.

Mom jolted from her nap and proceeded to act as though she'd never fallen asleep. The woods surrounding the car seemed to get thicker, more dense, without any trace of the massive city just miles away.

"We're almost there, just a few more miles now. See that hill up ahead?" Mom said, pointing ahead.

Darcy nodded, but then remembered her mom couldn't see her, and said yes instead. In the distance, there was a large, sloping hill, with what looked vaugely like a footpath leading up the side.

"The camp is a hill?" Michael asked plainly, staring at the hill in question.

"No no! Of course not! The camp is in a valley on the other side of the hill." Mom explained quickly.

Darcy began to hear a faint hissing noise, somewhere to the left. Carter seemed to hear it too, because his eyes grew wide again and he got all jittery.

"I-i think she caught up." Carter squeaked out.

Darcy turned to get a better look. It seemed their pursuer had found some friends. Darting through the forest were maybe three dracaenae, slithering along with their twin snake tail-legs, which, by the way, were about as thick as tree trunks. Fantastic. Carter sped up so we were going even further over the legal speed-limit, slamming his awkward foot on the gas. Darcy didn't know what the Jeep's top speed was, but she was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to be goint this fast. She held onto her seat for dear life, and had to loop her arm through the backpack strap to stop it from flying away.

Suddenly, Carter slammed on the brakes and the car skidded to a stop in front of the hill mom had mentioned earlier. Darcy slammed back into her seat, winded, at the sudden change of speed.

"And that, " Michael said, wide eyed and breathless, "is why you don't let twelve-year-olds drive."

Carter scowled at him before remembering the current situation. He quickly unbuckled himself and jumped out of the car, urging everyone else to follow his example. Darcy scrambled out of the car, still holding onto her bag for dear life.

Darcy only had a few seconds to get her head to stop spinning before she was ushered out of the car and up the hill. Darcy scrambled out of the car, still clutching her onto her bag for dear life.

The dracaenae were catching up fast, Darcy could hear them now. They were hissing incessantly, as though they were excited to disembody the young half-bloods. Darcy's limited knowledge in Greek mythology was enough to tell her that they probably were.

When she was about half-way up the hill, Darcy was stopped by her mother pulling her and Michael into a hug. She spoke quickly and frantically, and her voice sounded hoarse and choked. It was then that Darcy noticed that her mother was crying, and she began to feel her own eyes grow misty as this new reality crushed down on her. She wouldn't be able to see her mom until August. How was she supposed to do that? She still got nervous when she spent the night at friends houses. What if she needed her? Darcy finally broke and latched onto her mother tightly as she told them that she loved them and loved them and would see them in August.

Darcy didn't want to let go, but the dracaenae were getting closer and they had to move quickly. Darcy rubbed her eyes and sniffled miserably as her mother released her and stood up.

"Run and don't look back! Go past the pine tree and straight for the big blue farmhouse, ask for Chiron!" Her mother yelled as she headed back to the car. As an afterthought, she added "and Michael, take care of your sister, okay?"

Michael nodded and tugged Darcy in the direction of the massive pine tree at the top of the hill. Darcy stared up at him as he dragged her along. He was furiously blinking back tears and was chewing on his bottom lip to stop it from quivering. Remembering that there was another person in the car besides herself, her mother and brother, Darcy looked behind her. Carter was running after them, which Darcy thought shouldn't have bee possible. He was far too clumsy on his feet to keep up with them, especially on an incline. But then again, nothing really made sense anymore, so she brushed it off and turned back around and ran faster to keep up with Michael's longer strides.

Michael crossed the barrier first, quickly followed by Carter, who was holding his sneakers rather than wearing them. Darcy had made the mistake of looking back again. The dracaenae were right behind them, Darcy could see their faces clearly now.

They were sickly pale, their skin had a weird tint to it and looked vaguely scaly. They had cruel, large eyes with reptilian slit pupils glinting hungrily. Their noses weren't much more than slits in the middle of their faces, and their thin lips were pulled back into menacing grins, revealing teeth that would have looked normal if not for the massive fangs. They reminded Darcy of Voldemort, but with hair and female.

She didn't know how long she stood there, staring at her impending doom. Somewhere in her mind she knew Michael was screaming at her, but his words fell on deaf ears. She couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't think, she could only stare ahead. She suddenly understood the phrase "frozen with fear". Her body refused to move, she wasn't even sure if she could blink. Was she even breathing?

Darcy was finally snapped out of her trance when Michael managed to pull her hard enough to get her over the boarders. She landed in a heap on the worn down grass, half on top of her older brother.

"Thanks" she managed to whisper, her heart still racing from fear. She scooted off of Michael and looked up at him with a strained smile.

Michael studied her for a moment, almost annoyed, before he let himself be washed over with relief. They were both okay, and that was all that mattered. Carter was tugging on their arms frantically, trying to get them to the big house before they drew any more attention.

Darcy pulled herself off the ground and slung her backpack over her shoulder, looking around. The dracaenae were glaring spitefully at the border, slowly retreating back into the forest. Suddenly feeling brave under the protection of the border, Darcy threw a nice sized rock in their general direction, and grinned when it connected with the back of the head of the closest one. It made her feel a little better, but she still looked away as quickly as she could when said dracaenae began to turn around. She wasn't feeling quite that brave yet.

As Michael dusted off his shorts, Darcy took in the camp. It was huge, sprawling across the valley, and filled with at least a hundred teenagers all sporting bright orange tee-shirts. To her left was a big blue farmhouse with a wraparound portch, the big house, she assumed, a few acres of strawberry fields could be seen behind it. Straight ahead were volleyball courts and what looked like an arts and crafts building. So far it all looked relatively normal, not at all what she'd expected from a camp meant for demigods.

Before she could see the rest of the camp, Michael and Carter had started walking towards the big house. Not wanting to be left behind, Darcy hurried after the older boys.

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**So here we go! Chapter two up only two weeks after the original! Lets hope I can keep that up with school starting next week. ****  
**


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